County of church: Franklin County
Location of church: Front St., at the foot of Cedar St., Washington
Built: 1865
Classified: B
District Map
"One of Missouri's few rivertowns which still
retains an orientation to the river, Washington survives with
riverfront blocks which include all of the industrial buildings, two
depots, an electric power plant, a waterworks, and an underground
reservoir.
"Italianate/Second Empire, 1865-1900. Coded B (Photos # 15, 16, 17, 18, 27). These closely related styles are represented by fourteen
buildings, ten of which are two or three story brick buildings with
storefronts and flats above. Most are concentrated along Main Street.
The salient stylistic features are bold, projecting cornices with wood
brackets (some with incised scrollwork panels), or corbelled brickwork
imitating brackets, and dormered mansard roofs. In other respects the
buildings differ little from the standard 19th and early 20th century
planar brick facade articulated with segmentally arched windows. ... The 1865
board and batten depot at 401 W. Front (Photo #27, left) is the only
frame building in this group." ~ NRHP Nomination Form
1865 MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILROAD DEPOT
(FREIGHT DEPOT)
The first train arrived in Washington, Missouri in 1855. That event confirmed Washington's position as the major transportation center in Franklin County. The town's first railroad depot was destroyed in a Civil War raid on October 2, 1864.
In 1865 the present frame depot was constructed just west of the foot of Elm Street. The frame Missouri Pacific depot served for 58 years as Washington's transportation center, from the close of the Civil War until it was replaced by a the more modern brick depot in 1923. The frame depot had separate waiting rooms for men and women in one half of the building and handled baggage and freight in the other half.
At the time the Missouri Pacific began construction on the brick depot, the frame depot was relocated from its site at the west edge of Elm Street to its present location at the foot of Cedar Street on the north side of Front Street. The building was then converted for use as the freight depot.
Ownership of the depot buildings passed from Union Pacific Systems to the City of Washington in 1985. Renovation work on the freight depot proceeded in cooperation with the Washington Area Chamber of Commerce." ~ Washington Historical Society
This 1865 Missouri Pacific depot is the oldest railroad depot building still remaining on an active rail line in the State of Missouri.